Tag: Roar Magazine

Anna March, literary gadabout and organizer in the US, has been exposed as a fraud with a storied history of taking financial and emotional advantage of writers (and others pre-her writing career). Anna and I were FB friends, and gradually grew closer. I hoped one day we’d meet in person. I got involved with Roar Magazine when she began it the week of the presidential inauguration, when Anna asked me to do a regular column. I was thrilled to be able to write regularly for a periodical I assumed I would love. It was something great coming on the terrible weighty shoulders of UBCA and Trumpet, and I hoped it would signal that the year was turning around–if not for imperilled Americans who would roll and march their bodies onto the front line to protest or for womxn students in Canada, then for me, personally. I wrote several columns, sent two, and Anna also bought some reprints. I know it won’t surprise you to hear that I never received payment, despite invoicing. Surprise, surprise, on its one-year anniversary, Roar folded with debts.

The only good thing was that I ended my involvement with Roar and Anna March early on when a friend ratted her out. It broke my heart, honestly. I’d really liked her. I thought she was doing good things in the world. I thought I could be a part of that. Even when her story went wonky–when, say, her only presence on the Binders was to solicit $–I wanted to believe in it, in her. And why would anyone scam writers/artists? We barely make it through a good month. But, yet, I had incontrovertible proof, lots of it, in front of me. She was everything the LA Times has confirmed today that she is. I’m glad the news is finally out in order that no one else ever gets scammed. But I’m also sad with the sadness that hasn’t really gone away since the US election and UBCA.

Thanks, Melissa Chadburn and Carolyn Kellogg. I appreciate you going to the wall.